Washington - National Public Radio (NPR) plans to file a "petition for reconsideration" of the new royalty rates for webcasting set forth earlier this month by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). [more..]

New York - CBS Sports announced on Thursday that it will offer "near real-time" game video clips and highlights of the NCAA basketball tournament on YouTube. [more..]

Hanover, Germany - The Blu-ray Disc Association, a consortium of companies backing Sony's next-generation DVD format, said on Thursday that it aims to replace the current DVD standard within three years, Reuters reported. [more..]

Stockholm, Sweden - Time Warner Inc is withdrawing its $900 million offer for Swedish online marketing company TradeDoubler AB. The media company's AOL unit offered to acquire TradeDoubler in January, securing the support of management, but some major shareholders pressed the US media company to raise its offer, which it refused to do. [more..]

San Francisco - A federal appeals court has ruled that German media conglomerate and one-time Napster investor Bertelsmann does not have to disclose its lawyers' communications regarding a $50 million loan it provided Napster in 2001, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

Austin, Texas - The owners of the lucrative Music.com domain name on Thursday announced the launch of an "artist-controlled" music download and ringtone distribution service. [more..]

New York - Snocap, the provider of a digital music registry and direct online distribution services, announced on Thursday that it has signed deals to power online stores for independent record labels Sup Pop, New Line and Dangerbird, via the labels' U.S. distributor, the Alternative Distribution Alliance. [more..]

Morristown, N.J. - Access Integrated Technologies (AccessIT), a provider of digital cinema delivery services, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with U.K. production company Blaze TV to produce and deliver performances from 24 bands at the South by Southwest music festival to movie theater screens. [more..]

Rochester, N.Y. - Some 35% of adult cell phone users are willing to accept incentive-based advertisements on their phones, according to a survey conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive. [more..]

Toronto, Canada - Musicrypt, a provider of secure distribution of singles from record labels to radio stations and others, announced on Thursday that it has secured $10 million in new financing, through a private placement of its shares. [more..]

Hanover, Germany - A group of companies including Studio Canal, Universal, Toshiba and Microsoft on Thursday announced the formation of the European HD DVD Promotional Group, which will work to promote Toshiba's next-generation DVD standard in the region. Microsoft has already begun selling an HD DVD drive add-on for its Xbox 360 video game console. The group and its member companies will launch a campaign with promotions, trade and consumer marketing through the 2007 holiday shopping season and into 2008. [more..]

Herndon, Va. - RCN, a provider of cable television, high-speed Internet and phone services, said that it has completed the $45 million sale of its San Francisco assets to Astound Broadband. The deal was first announced in August. Astound, a unit of Kirkland, Wash.-based Wave Broadband, currently offers broadband services to 55,000 customers in Concord and Walnut Creek, Calif. RCN's San Francisco operations will add about 18,000 customers to that total. RCN said that selling its primary operations on the West Coast will allow it to focus on its core Northeast Corridor and Chicago regions. [more..]

Sacramento, Calif. - Digital Music Group, Inc. (DMGI) said on Thursday that it has signed a long-term digital distribution agreement with BKN International, an animation company whose properties include "The Gumby Show," "Clutch Cargo" and "Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse." Under the deal, DMGI will deliver BKN's current and upcoming TV shows and films to North American digital video distributors, and also add them to its own DMGI Kids channel. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Nintendo announced on Thursday that it plans to release two new titles in its Pokemon franchise, "Pokemon Diamond Version" and "Pokemon Pearl Version," on April 22 for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo said that it shipped a combined 5 million units of the two titles to retailers in Japan during their first three months of release, adding that over 155 million Pokemon games have been sold worldwide. [more..]